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More Reasons to Worry About Hanford

Since our story last month on Department of Energy's plans to restart the Plutonium Finishing Plant at Hanford ("What the Hell Are They Doing at Hanford"), The Free Press has obtained new documents showing that the facility is even more dangerous than we thought.

An unpublished April 1993 report by DOE's Office of Nuclear Safety details recent accidents at the plant:
On March 17, 1993, a clamp failed during the replacement of filter, allowing part of the clamp to slide and radioactivity to be released. Fourteen operators were working in the area.
On March 22, 1993, two operators were attempting to clear a clogged rotameter by tapping it. In the process, they loosened radiological contamination.
Facility management was not informed until January 1993 that a worker had received an internal uptake of plutonium sometime before December 1991.
In July 1992, a DOE safety official discovered that 14 office workers, untrained in radiological protection, had been working within the plant's neutron radiation field.

Separately, a pregnant woman was also working within the neutron radiation field and may have received exposure in excess of DOE limits for the gestation period. Westinghouse contended that she took off her dosimeter and inappropriately stored it in the radiation field. "This contention could not be substantiated," the report says.

And as if our own radioactive crap isn't enough to mismanage, DOE wants to import it. DOE is accepting public input on it's plans to transport spent nuclear-fuel rods from foreign research reactors through the Port of Seattle and to Hanford and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory for permanent storage. Other West Coast ports of call being considered are Oakland and Portland.
The U.S. will charge developed nations for this service and subsidize the costs for developing nations. There are no plans, however, to encourage source reduction.

-Eric Nelson



City Taken To Task For Its 'Wimby' Failings

Apparently, "cover your ass" efforts don't always do the job.

Just a few months after the city of Seattle elicited public input on procedures for doling out contracts to women and minority-owned businesses (a.k.a. "wimbys"), a group of 60 community councils has scolded the city for not putting money where its mouth is. A previous Free Press story ("City to study 'Wimbys'" July/Aug, 1993), noted that the city was conducting a study of the wimby regulations, partly in case "the city is sued over the program."
Suits may not have been filed yet, but some folks aren't too happy with the city's record on the issue. The Seattle Federation of community Councils voted recently to support the recommendations of the Central Contractors Association, the largest and oldest minority contractors association in the Pacific Northwest, regarding the wimby laws. The association is urging that the city pay more than lip service to the existing standards regarding wimby participation in city projects. Current laws call for at least 18 percent of all contracts go to minority-owned business, and 9 percent to women-owned firms.
Among the recommendations: that a federally appointed monitor oversee compliance; that a hearing be required for any waivers to the regulations; and that laws be passed against the fraudulent listing of minority contractors in project bids. This last recommendation would help eliminate the practice of listing a minority contractor in the bid, only to terminate that contractor after the bid has been won.
The Central Area District Council of Seattle claims that more than $300 million worth of development has occurred in Seattle in the last 2-1/2 years without utilizing any minority involvement. The council estimates the city awards only 8 percent of contracts to minorities.
Activists also are asking that a grand jury investigate the city's record on awarding contracts to minority-owned businesses, according to The Seattle Times.

-David Hirning

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Contents on this page were published in the December/Jan, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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